Squashing Imposter Syndrome

Recently, I listened to Barbara Corcoran’s Podcast on imposter syndrome. The episode was so rich with nuggets of business wisdom that I took an entire page of notes. In this blog post, I’m sharing my notes with you.

Squashing Imposter Syndrome – Notes from Barbara Corcoran’s Podcast

Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran struggled with imposter syndrome six months after she sold her real estate company for sixty-six million dollars. She felt like a fraud. She told herself it was a fluke that she sold her company for that much. That her past achievements in building her company were all a fluke.

She then made the connection that she hadn’t worked during the six months since she sold her company. She realized that she was doubting her success because she wasn’t working.

Not working allowed self-doubt to creep in.

Idleness, lack of one hundred and fifty percent effort towards your work allows doubt to creep in.

Imposter syndrome will make you think your past successes are a fluke, a stroke of luck.

While Barbara believes there’s always some level of luck involved in creating success, she also believes we should give ourselves some credit for our talents and experiences.

I believe we create our own luck. We do that with our efforts, habits, and mindset. If we’re applying ourselves to our business, then we are creating the probability for success.

Why Self-Doubt is a Good Thing

Barbara believes that having a little doubt is actually a good thing. Doubting ourselves keeps us from being too arrogant. Second-guessing ourselves can make us work harder.

Every time you doubt yourself, simply put the doubt aside and just focus on working harder. When you work hard, you don’t have time to doubt. When you doubt yourself, work your way through the doubt.

Every time you have a little doubt, work a little harder. Work harder for one day, two days, three days, a week or a month, whatever it takes. If you focus on working harder, you leave no room for doubt. It may be there in the background, but you won’t have the time or energy to focus on it.

The edge of doubt makes you a better performer in anything you do.

Doubt or impostor syndrome is a privileged club. While the imposter syndrome plagues both men and women, it affects women more.

Barbara didn’t let impostor syndrome stop her when she was building her real estate company. She gave one-hundred and fifty percent effort for thirty years. She continually took action. She chose action over thinking every day.

(Notes from Barbara Corcoran’s Podcast episode #15 (Season 1) Squashing Imposter Syndrome)